Sunrise
by Annie Forest
Summary: A very short story about the Little Mermaid's last moments on earth. Seen From Prince Eric's point of view. Rated T for language. I forgot to put in the disclaimer, so here goes: I don't own it. Disney does.


Hello. My pseudonym's Annie. This is my first fiction, so please be nice if you decide to review this. I must warn readers that I have never gotten the hang of paragraphs and I tend to be comma-happy, but otherwise, I think this story's decent. I'd like to say that I hate unhappy endings, so if I write again, I promise it won't end so... I guess 'bittersweet' would be the word. Please enjoy:

**Sunrise**

The Little Mermaid's Last Moments

The prince sat up. Looking out the window, he could see it was almost dawn. He turned to his side, smiled at his bride. Married only last night, her warmth by his side made him love her more. He frowned. What had woken him?

There was a creak from outside the cabin door. Oh, yes, that's right. He swore he had heard crying, and thought he had seen a flash of light against blue. He crawled out of bed, careful not to disturb his wife. As he pulled on a sweater, he felt something wet on his cheek. He wiped it with his finger, tasted it. Salty. A tear? He walked out the door.

Above deck, he gazed at his surroundings. The ship was anchored; no one was visible. After last night's wedding festivities, everyone slept. But there, on portside, at the back of the ship, stood a girl swathed in blue.

It was his dearest friend, a girl he had found, cared for, came to call Ariel. He had chosen that name for her, because it meant fluid, and everything about her was always flowing. Even now, as she merely stood by the siderail, her hair, her clothes seemed to dance in a nonexistent breeze.

Like she had danced last night. Just twice had he had the pleasure of seeing her dance. Once, at his betrothal feast and once again, on his wedding day. Both times she had danced with an overwhelming sadness, deep and sorrowing as the sea. He supposed she had been taught to dance like that wherever she was from, but when he saw her move with that grace and beauty no normal girl could achieve, he only wished she would smile as/wished he could see her smile as she twirled.

He walked over to her. She turned from her study of the morning horizon, waiting for the sunrise. She saw him. She blinked. The prince was surprised to see her face was covered in tears. Maybe she was the one who had left a tear on his cheek? But why? He moved to touch her, and she flinched, hiding one hand behind her back.

He frowned. She had never shrunk back from his touch before. She had always welcomed his hand.

"Ariel, why do you cry? What's wrong?" The prince moved to touch her once again, and she shrunk back once more, bending over, fist clenched to her face, her shoulder shaking from the force of her tears. He knew if her throat had a voice, she would be crying out loud right now.

He felt something was terribly wrong. He moved towards her one more time, desperate to feel her accept him. She backed away from him a few feet and buried her face into the wooden railing. He felt an icy wave/torrent of fear tumble down the inside of his stomach.

He moved forward a step, cautiously, as he would've approached a dangerous, wild animal.

"Why won't you let me touch you, Ariel?" His hurt and fear showed in his voice. She looked at him. She had been his constant companion for the past two years, up until his marriage was announced. Together, they had molded a body language into being, so they could communicate. It had been tough, but it worked and they could understand each other.

Quietly, she put something down on the railing behind her and turned to face him. She moved her hands and fingers slowly. The prince immediately knew this message was important, whatever it was, because she wanted him to understand so much she moved twice as slow as she normally spoke. '_I must go.'_

The cold feeling in his stomach grew sharper and expanded. She was serious. He frowned confusedly. "Why? And where will you go?"

Her fingers moved. '_I will go because it is impossible for me to stay here any longer. I don't know what will happen to me, or where it is I will be.'_

The cold feeling reached his spine, and he started to panic. He didn't want her to go. He stepped forward; she stepped back.

"What do you mean you don't know where you're going? Why can't you stay here anymore?" She shrugged, sighed sorrowfully.

'_Who can say where I will go? Where does a fish go when it dies? Does it have a soul? If I have a soul, it is still a fish's and I don't know if a fish can go to Heaven.'_

She reached for the object she had placed on the railing. She drew it forward. It was a knife. It was a beautiful one, skillfully made, with an engraving of a castle on it below which laid the foreign language she often doodled in sand and on paper.

He blanched. She was talking nonsense about her being a fish again, but she had mentioned death and here she had a knife. He dashed forward and grabbed it out of her hands. She made no move to stop him.

Somehow that made him angry. She wouldn't let him touch her, she wasn't telling him everything, he felt he had no control over the situation, and now she was talking about suicide. His throat now felt cold and he spoke softly, tense.

"Why do you have this knife? I WON'T let you kill yourself. You're my best friend. You're like a sister. Tell me what's wrong and we'll work this out." She snorted. He glared at her.

She motioned again. '_It is too late, Eric. Can you not see the sun is rising? When the sun is in the sky, I will die. Nothing can be done to save me now.'_

"Stop speaking nonsense! What do you mean you will die? I have the knife now. I will assign a guard to watch you until you regain your senses. No harm will befall you." He was starting to tremble in anger and fear.

A fresh tear fell down her cheek. '_Ah, Eric. I will miss your stubborn behavior. I am a fish. Haven't I told you all this? I came from the sea, I became human, I-'_

He sighed and spoke over her fingers. "'Came here for one purpose and if I can't complete it, I will be lost.' Yes, yes, I know. You're always saying that. Look, Ariel, you are NOT a fish! You have arms and legs like everyone else! You are made of flesh and blood; you have hair on your head. You are HUMAN. Believe me, I know of what I speak!"

She stamped her foot. '_No, Eric. Believe me! Turn over the knife!'_

He turned it over. She pointed to a carving he hadn't seen before.

A woman's form was carved into the metal. Her hair billowed out above her naked chest, entwining itself around her waist before halting above a long, glistening tail, ending in fins. He looked up at Ariel.

'_Don't you know the mythology? I AM a fish, just like her. I am not a fish like you think, but a fish like her. Just like the fairy tales, I wished to become human and I have failed to accomplish the one thing that will keep me human. That means I will die. Accept this.'_

The cold feeling left him numb. He had always thought she was a perfectly normal girl with a fantasy about being aquatic, but now that he knew she meant 'mermaid' when she signed 'fish', suddenly he believed her. He swallowed.

Oh, fuck. He DID know the mythology, of how mermaids were immortal and magical, were half-human, half-fish, but how some mermaids were born with human hearts. How the human hearted ones longed for land, for love, and often gave up their fins and voices to come and find human mates, because humans knew how to love.

He knew that they could not communicate anything about mermaids. He also knew that they couldn't speak the word love, nor write it nor show it until the feeling was bestowed upon them. Most importantly, he knew that mermaids died upon the completion of the next sunrise if the one they loved got married to another.

Fuck. Ariel loved him, and he had been completely oblivious to it until now. Because he had married another woman he loved, his best friend would be dead in a matter of minutes.

He started to cry. She began to move her hands again. '_The knife was not meant for me, Eric. My sisters brought this knife to me earlier this night; they told me if I were to kill you with this enchanted knife, I could become a mermaid again, that I would not have to die.'_

Ariel wiped tears from her eyes. Eric cried harder, silently. '_But I couldn't do it, Eric, I couldn't. I can't kill the one I-' _

Her hands clenched involuntarily. Eric now knew it was because she couldn't confess love until he returned it. Why couldn't she have fallen in love with someone else? Then he could've kept her.

The sun appeared on the horizon. Eric turned from it to her. He grabbed her, kissed her hard. "I love you, Ariel, I do. I only thought you were slightly crazy, talking about being a fish- I mean mermaid. Please, please tell me that the part of the mythology about marriage isn't true, PLEASE tell me that I can keep you."

Ariel slumped in his arms. "I wish I could, Eric, I wish I could" Her voice was soft and light, soothing, like the sound of running water. He stared at her, shocked. She could speak now that he had kissed her?

"It doesn't matter if you love us both, Eric. You're a married man. I can't have you. I cannot destroy another's love. You loved her enough to ask her hand in marriage; she loved you enough to accept it. I cannot break the bond you two entered into under God"

The sun was now nearly whole above the water. "I love you, Eric. I'm sure, even with a mermaid's soul, I always will"

She pulled out of his embrace and stepped into the sunlight. For a moment, she glowed, as if an Inner Light was escaping from her body. In the next moment her form changed, showing her hair billowing out in every direction, her chest naked, her legs transformed into a long, silver tail. Her eyes, looking directly into his, showed a vast love, deep as the ocean.

One tear fell, crystallized. Then there was nothing but a puddle of seawater at his feet, which quickly slipped through the railings into the ocean. He stared at the damp spot where the Ariel he knew had last existed. He saw a flash of blue.

He bent down and picked up a jewel. A sapphire, shaped like a tear drop, which, when held up to the sunlight, showed a deformed facet deep in its interior. It was Ariel in the middle of her dance, twirling, face smiling and full of love.

The End

I hope it satisfied.


End file.
